How to Set Career Performance Goals
A serious approach to setting career performance goals can separate successful professionals from people going nowhere in their careers. Before you can experience career success, you and your supervisor must work as a team to establish goals that support your business and challenge you to use your skills to the best of your ability. Clear criteria also allow your supervisor to remain objective in evaluating your performance at the end of the year. A well-established set of guidelines creates a relationship of trust that frees you to perform well and accomplish the tasks that lead to a successful career.
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Instructions
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Make an appointment with your supervisor to discuss your current role with the company. Take the initiative to request the meeting. This shows your hunger to succeed and willingness to do whatever it takes to improve your performance on the job.
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Ask your supervisor for a clear definition of your job, including the most important tasks and benchmarks the company expects you to meet. Even if the answers seem obvious, you may be surprised to learn what the company needs most from your performance. Manage your time with a focus on what the company deems important to move your career in the right direction.
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Evaluate your skills, strengths and weaknesses in light of the company's most important objectives for your position. Work with your supervisor to determine areas of weakness that require more training or coaching.
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Set specific criteria that define success in your role. Write down specific performance objectives that clearly spell out what results your company expects of you.
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Establish a measurable result for each goal. For example, write down a specific number of sales or projects completed per month. Measurable results allow you to gauge your progress along the way. Feedback allows you to make course corrections, request extra training or acquire more resources to keep you within striking distance of your goal.
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Develop a list of specific actions you must take to reach your goals. Sports psychologist Shane Murphy, in his book "The Achievement Zone," says that athletes and career professionals experience success when they define success in terms of actions they must carry out. You can influence results, but you cannot control them. Keep your focus on things you can control by listing specific actions you must take. This takes much of the stress out of career goal-setting.
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Decide the next action you must take toward each of your career goals, even if you lack the knowledge to develop a plan toward the goal's completion. In "Getting Things Done," time management guru David Allen says that focusing on only the next step you must take helps alleviate pressure and avoid procrastination. Pick the first step from your list of action steps and get started. Once you accomplish that step, pick the next logical step from the list and accomplish that one. Allen says that even if you have no idea how to reach your goal, you can always figure out the next step. As you progress, you will gain the knowledge you need to figure out the rest of the action plan.
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